No Quick Look for FITS images?

[Tailspin45]

Selecting a FITS image in the Finder and hitting the space bar only produces a popup with the file name, no image.

Per the manual (yes I did actually RTFM), I tried

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qlmanage -r;qlmanage -r cache in Terminal, quit Finder, and even restarted. Still no Quick Look FITS images.

Thoughts?

OSX 11.3, iMac 27, 64Gb

[Sander Berents]

That's odd. Did it work before you updated to 11.3? Is this for every FITS file or for a particular camera? Are the thumbnails displayed for them? Which version of Observatory?

I have no trouble with the thumbnails and Quick Look previews for FITS, XISF and SBIG images myself on 11.3. Please share one of your FITS files using DropBox so I can check if there's something with the file itself that causes the issue.

[Tailspin45]

Thanks for your quick response!

Yes, QL did work before the OS update but also stopped working before the update, too. Don't think it's the culprit.

None of my FITS files, produced by three different astro cameras over the last 2 years, open in QL now.

Can't identify any event that might have caused the problem except that I updated an app called FITS Preview, but it works fine.

For diagnostic purposes it's worth noting that free app QuickFits doesn't work at all...but I just got it as a possible workaround and don't know if it ever worked. The problem with QuickFits suggests it's an OS, not an app issue: when using File, Open FITS files are grayed out and cannot be opened...BUT...FITS Preview sees them and opens them as expected.

No thumbnails, just a blank document icon. Version 1.6.1 (40) of Observatory

Sample exoplanet astrometry subframe (i.e. just a bunch of stars) on Dropbox.
 

[Tailspin45]

Continuing to look for clues and just discovered Observatory will not import FITS files into a new library.

The import popup appears, the progress bar shows "Import 1 of XXX" but no imported.

It created the file structure in Albums but "no files imported" message appeared.

There were 300 files, so I tried just a few, several times, with same result.

[Sander Berents]

I have no trouble previewing your image on 11.3 with Quick Look, and the thumbnail is displayed as well. I also have no trouble opening the file in Observatory.

If you open the Console application (/Utilities/Console), filter by "quicklook", and then try to use quick look with one of the images, do you see any error messages that might by related?

In terminal, execute qlmanage -m plugins|grep fits to see if Observatory's Quick Look plugin is actually assigned by the system to handle the FITS file. It should output something like
gov.nasa.gsfc.fits -> /Applications/Observatory.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/ObservatoryQL.qlgenerator

Did you do any other major software or hardware updates, moved Observatory out of the Applications folder, restored from Time Machine, or to another computer all together? It sounds like your system somehow forgot that Observatory handles FITS files.

[Tailspin45]

From console:

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May  2 09:53:22 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook.QuickLookUIService[45831]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by loginwindow[153]
May  2 10:03:03 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.user.domain.503.100012.Aqua): com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper (lint): The HideUntilCheckIn property is an architectural performance issue. Please transition away from it.
May  2 10:13:41 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook[2235]): Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.quicklookd.xpc
May  2 10:13:41 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook[2235]): Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.quicklook
May  2 10:33:56 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook[2458]): Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.quicklookd.xpc
May  2 10:33:56 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook[2458]): Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.quicklook
May  2 11:31:27 Tom27 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.user.domain.503.100009.Aqua): com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper (lint): The HideUntilCheckIn property is an architectural performance issue. Please transition away from it.
From Terminal:

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Tom23@Tom27 ~ % qlmanage -m plugins|grep fits
  gov.nasa.gsfc.fits -> /Applications/QuickFits.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/QLFits.qlgenerator (9)
  gov.nasa.gsfc.fits-header -> /Library/QuickLook/QLFits3.qlgenerator (3.2.2)

Did you do any other major software or hardware updates, moved Observatory out of the Applications folder, restored from Time Machine, or to another computer all together? It sounds like your system somehow forgot that Observatory handles FITS files.

Nope, no other updates, haven't moved Observatory (did delete and reinstall it hoping to fix the problem, did restore from TimeMachine a week or so ago when I got this new iMac but QL worked fine until today.

Smoking gun seems to be narrowing down to update of FITS Preview. I'm in contact with them via their forum, but so far only response is from another user who seems to have no problem and uses QuickFits without problems, too.

[Sander Berents]

I suspect it's not a problem with any of the software, but that your system's LaunchServices database is somehow out of sync. If you control-click on any of the images, under "Open With" are Observatory and QuickFits listed there, or do you see double entries, or removed applications?

As you can see from your qlmanage -m plugins output, Observatory isn't actually being used anymore for Quick Look. You may need to remove QuickFits.

To see the contents of the LaunchServices database, enter for example
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump | bbedit
(replace bbedit here with your favorite editor)

You might need to update the LauchServices database for Observatory with the following command:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -r -v /Applications/Observatory.app

If that doesn't help, you can also rebuild the LaunchServices database completely, with the command
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
I haven't done that for ages on my own machine. Please make a Time Machine backup before you do that.

[Tailspin45]

I suspect it's not a problem with any of the software, but that your system's LaunchServices database is somehow out of sync. If you control-click on any of the images, under "Open With" are Observatory and QuickFits listed there, or do you see double entries, or removed applications?

Well, isn't it nice that you have an unpaid job providing tech support for Apple? I'm sure they don't appreciate it, but I certainly do!

Anyway, no, Observatory and QuickFits are not listed, but Nebulosity, FITS Liberator, and FITS preview are. No duplicates.

As you can see from your qlmanage -m plugins output, Observatory isn't actually being used anymore for Quick Look.

Good point. That didn't sink in when I saw it.

You may need to remove QuickFits.

Done

To see the contents of the LaunchServices database, enter for example
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump | bbedit
(replace bbedit here with your favorite editor)

Actually, BBEdit has been my favorite editor for almost 30 years because, as they say, it doesn't suck.

But when I tried to update the LauchServices database for Observatory, the process seemed to work

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Tom23@Tom27 ~ % /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -r -v /Applications/Observatory.app
lsregister: processing /Applications/Observatory.app
lsregister: registered /Applications/Observatory.app
but Observatory is still not listed, even after I relaunched Finder.

If that doesn't help, you can also rebuild the LaunchServices database completely

Timemachine backup exists so, fingers crossed...

tick, tick, tick...

YAY! Observatory is now listed and Quick Look works!

Problem solved thanks entirely to your patience and knowledge. I'm a happy customer and fully appreciate that the support you provided was in no way an Observatory problem.

Thank you!